White Surface at www.japanese-home-gardens.com

White paper, or white leather, moistened with solution of nitrate of silver, undergoes no change when kept in a dark place; but, on being exposed to day light, it speedily changes colour, and, after passing through different shades of grey and brown, becomes at length nearly black... When the shadow of any figure is thrown upon the prepared surface, the part concealed by it remains white, and the other parts speedily become dark.

But when a mineral is scratched against a white surface it leaves a streak of colour that is usually distinctive. The lustre - the way in which the light is reflected from the surface -is different in different minerals. Quartz has a glassy lustre while mica [14C] can be pearly or metallic in appearance.

By this definition, then, White's goal was to make photographs that extend beyond the subject. Surface appearance, although of secondary importance, is essential, but the image must be transformed into a new event, to be discovered by the viewer. Finding the inner meaning intended by the photographer is not easy. Of the photograph The Three Thirds White wrote: Identification of subject can be so offhand that a title is required to suggest that further experience of the picture is worth the effort.